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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Rainbow Cake

So, last post I was telling you about how I was going to make THE Rainbow Cake to celebrate the last week of school.

Well. It's official.

The Rainbow Cake ROCKED. IT. OUT.

It took some time, but really, it was quite simple to make.

I used 2 boxes of regular white cake mix, but I'm sure you could get all fancy and make some really delicious cake. I might do that next time. But for our first go round, I wanted it as easy as possible.

I just made the batter according to the directions on the box.

I used this Wilton icing color gel. I got mine at Walmart for $1.50 each. It was a baking investment for that price, but I can probably get at least a good 4 or 5 more Rainbow Cakes out of them.

And technically, when you are photographing your color gel, Ella says you should arrange them into a happy face, like so:

Miss Ella and I had fun while we made the cake batter and separated it not-so-evenly into 6 bowls. Then we added about 1/2 teaspoon of gel color per bowl. Supposedly the two boxes of cake mix should divide into about 1 1/2 cups of batter per bowl. Our purple layer ended up much bigger than the others, but purple is Ella's favorite color, so it worked out well for us.

Ella is the stir master!

We baked and we cooled (in two batches because even though I bought two brand-spanking new cake pans for this endeavor, that only brought my cake pan ownership up to a whopping four pans).

See how big the purple is? I tried to cut the rounded tops off all the layers to make them flatter and more layer-worthy, but our purple layer was still huge. And, also, my layers were never actually layer-worthy. Not straight AT ALL I tell you!

I assembled and frosted. I also tried to do that trick where you place pieces of wax paper underneath the edges of your cake before you frost it. And then, when you're done frosting, you pull the paper out and your plate is all sparkling clean and frosting free. Except I placed a couple of the pieces of wax paper too far in and the whole purple layer tried to escape when I tried to pull the paper free. So I had to hold the bottom layer in place and get frosting all over my hands while trying to rescue the wax paper.

Note to self: Try not to be an idiot.

And then I frosted some more. I used this buttercream recipe because I had never made buttercream frosting before and it sounded yummy and easy. And it was, but I had to double the recipe, and even that wasn't enough to frost every layer and the entire outside of the cake, soooo.... Every time I took a bite I was thinking about the 4 STICKS OF BUTTER that I used. Next time I'll try something else.

Peyton and Ella were in charge of the sprinkles, so most of those either got dumped on the cake or were rolling willy-nilly on the table and onto the floor.

Ten seconds worth of sprinkling:

And then the sprinkle pour and pat down technique:

Then we stuck it in the fridge until after dinner.

Isn't my new platter adorable? I won it in a giveaway from Ampersand. I love it!!!

Back to The Cake!

I was excited, because I've never made a 6-layer cake before, and apart from it being semi-naked from lack of frosting, it looked nice from the outside. And when I cut out the first slice OH MY GOSH! I was jumping up and down and squealing with joy!

It's so beautiful and rainbow-y!!!

And James and Peyton and Ella were as thrilled as I was! Even though Peyton and Ella helped me make the cake, they were still totally in awe of their fantastically skilled baking mama. And even though it took absolutely no great baking skills, I will take all the kid admiration I can get. I love this cake!

My sweet family has declared that The Rainbow Cake needs to be a new Last Day of School tradition.

WOW! this is amazing! I used to make rainbow cakes by colouring the dough in different colours and then throw all the different colours in the pan on top of each other. baked it looks pretty cool, too, marmorised (sorry, my english is rotten this morning, I'm not quite awake yet...)But your cake really rocks!!!!Micky

Hi! I LOVE rainbow cake! Yours turned out awesome! I am a new follower!I would love it if you stopped by blog, take a look around and if you like what you see, follow me back! Thanks!Have a great holiday!Kirsten

This looks amazing! I am planning to make my first rainbow cake for Kayden's 1st Birthday in a couple weeks. I got 3 boxes of cake mix but I see you only used two...I'm wondering if I should only use 2 now or if 3 will make a monster cake!!

I totally get the thrill of cutting into a rainbow cake and seeing all the colors. Even though you made it and know its rainbow there is something so cool about cutting into it. My daughters 10th birthday cake was like that and no one knew until we cut the cake. The response couldn't have been better.Great Job!

Wow. :) I must try this out sometime. Yours turned out beautiful. Following you from Tip Junkie‘s link party. Would love to have you link this up to my {wow me} wednesday link party going on right now over on my blog. Hope to see you there. :)

I made the same cake for my kids at St. Patricks day and it was a huge hit. I have been thinking I should try the same idea with red white & blue for the 4th or purple, orange and green for Halloween with chocolate icing. . .

I LOVE THIS! I need to make this for my baby girl's 1st birthday. So fun! I've got to say how much I enjoyed reading your tutorial! You really keep things upbeat and funny, thank you! I can't wait to read some of your kids craft posts!

Beautiful! Btw...not sure if anyone else noted this, but just in case you want your cakes baked more evenly (because let me tell you, I'm probably the worst at leveling cakes, haha!) there are cake "Bake Even Strips" by Wilton, but I figured out that you can make them for free. Just take an old towel and cut it into a long enough strip to fit around the side of your cake pan. Wet, ring it out a little, and wrap it around the outside of your cake pan. (make sure the strip is wet before you pop it in the oven) You can use a sewing needle to hold it together while it bakes. I love it...makes it sooo much easier, virtually no leveling needed. Again, awesome cake! I love surfing the web and checking out beautiful cakes like these. -Melissa

My friend and I tried baking this cake yesterday. It was beautiful and delicious! We didn't follow the instructions exactly (we only used 1 box of cake mix) but the end result was great. The layers were a bit thin and hard to arrange without tearing (again, using 1 box) but we still ended up with 6 colorful layers coated with my friend's homemade butter cream icing. Amazing cake!

I'm making this cake for my daughter's birthday party Saturday (it'll be 2 hours away). Do you kno how tall was the cake after it was all put together? I just hope my cake serving tupperware is tall enough. Also could I make it the afternoon before or wait as late as possible to make it or try to hold off until morning of? The party is at 1 on Saturday but we will be leaving the house at 9 that morning so it will also be in the car until we get to NC. Hope to hear from you in time! Thanks inadvance!